Thanks to Wayne Beasley

Wiener Neustadt has real English turf

Greenkeeper Wayne Beasley in his element. Lawn maintenance is his passion.(Bild: Cerny)

The green in the stadium of Wr. Neustadt enjoys an excellent reputation. Wayne Beasley, a man from the motherland of soccer, is responsible for this. Golf courses are also the territory of a man who has already played at Old Trafford.

The ERGO Arena in Wiener Neustadt can justifiably claim to have an English pitch! After all, the head greenkeeper Wayne Beasley was born in England.

When the "Krone" visits, four of his eleven employees are working in the stadium, preparing the lush green for the weekend. "Al-Ahli, the soccer club from Saudi Arabia, has just played here, and now we have two American football matches on Saturday and Sunday," there is hardly any respite for the pitch. Which is praised to the skies from all sides. "The best surface we've played on in the European League so far," enthuses Vikings coach Calaycay.

Wayne, who was born in 1963, says that the stadium and the four secondary pitches are "almost incidental". Area 36, which consists of the Föhrenwald and Linsberg golf clubs, is more work. "But soccer is my passion," says Beasley, who loves the sport.

He played it intensively as a child and teenager alongside rugby, and even played with a junior team at the venerable Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester. As a 13-year-old, he was already interested in turf maintenance. This passion eventually became his profession. From Ardley, a small village in north London, he conquered the world of sport. "There were US soldiers stationed nearby. We watched American football, basketball and baseball. When I was ten or twelve years old, someone gave me a skateboard. I was probably one of the first in Europe to have one," the passionate rider reminisces.

Today, he lives with his wife Ilse and their 14-year-old daughter Zara not far from GC Föhrenwald. And would like to pursue his great hobby in his approaching retirement: "Maintaining soccer pitches!"